2018
Brake Preferences
What matters most?
By Vesna Brajkovic, Assistant Editor
8 Fleet Maintenance | March 2018
The following factors
are important for brake
part purchasing.
(Listed in order by highest importance.)
1. Quality
2. Availability
3. Price
4. Customer support
5. Brand name
6. Stopping distance
7. Past experience
8. Mileage range/life
9. Speed of delivery
10. Warranty
Properly functioning brakes are a critical part of an efficiently run fleet operation.
The consequences of bad brakes result in not only a safety issue, but potential
out-of-service violations that threaten uptime. Because of this, proper brake
maintenance, as well as selection, is imperative. As some would expect, fleet
maintenance managers have their preferences.
The 2018 Fleet Maintenance Brake Study found that the quality of a brake was
the most important factor when purchasing brakes, which 35 percent source
from truck and trailer dealerships. Quality is followed in importance by product
availability, price and customer support.
Respondents indicated both Bendix and Meritor were the most often spec’d
brake brands, followed by Haldex and Gunite.
A m ajority of the fleets, according to the survey, primarily use drum brakes (66
percent). Disc brakes are used by 26 percent and hydraulic brakes by 3 percent.
Five percent use all types, or a combination of them.
In this section, you will find a breakdown of some of brake preference results.
Adoption of online purchasing as the primary means of procuring parts is still not
widespread, with 0 percent indicating they purchase parts through online websites.
Fleets still prefer purchasing brake parts from brick and mortar stores most – especially
truck and trailer dealerships (35 percent) and retail parts stores (18 percent).
ABS Friction
ACDelco
Bendix
Bosch
Brake Parts
Centric Parts
ConMet
DuraBrake
EBC Brakes
Federal-Mogul
Motorparts
Fras-Le
Gunite
Haldex
Marathon
Meritor
Motorcraft
Raybestos
Stemco
TSE Brakes
Which brand of brake product do you use in your fleet?
10%
23%
82%
16%
10% 10%
22%
5% 4%
26%
3%
51%
63%
8%
80%
25% 24%
40%
6%